Ash Fire
by Katako-Chan
Summary: Three easy steps. One, two, three. Easier said than done.


**Author's Note:** This was written as a sort of symbolic piece to what is going on in RL at the moment. I have a huge project due on April 25th that counts as a major grade in math, science, english, and history. My group and I finished filming our video presentation, and one of my groupmates took the files home to edit it for the presentation. The thing is, the files don't play on Windows MovieMaker.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto.

**Ash Fire**

by Katako-Chan

It couldn't have been worse.

The mission was a catastrophe to begin with. After Orochimaru's Chuunin Exam attack upon the village, Konoha's ninja had been stretched so thin that gaping holes wormed their way into the defenses. It had become difficult for teammates from Genin days to even take missions as a team anymore. Frequently, teams were rag-tag groups of whatever ninja happened to be available at the time, the ranks scattered. You were lucky if your group had a drop of teamwork.

Four of them had set out to Water Country. Reconnaissance missions were the kind of missions every member of the team excelled at, but they had no other choice. Infiltrate, retrieve heavily guarded documents, and destroy was what the mission scroll stated. Three easy steps: one, two, three. Easier said than done.

The wildly conflicting opinions and strategies of the teammates had done nothing for the mission, and without a competent strategist or compromiser on the scene, the arguments reigned. For four days and three nights, the team member argued. Everything from the route, to the strategy, to what was for dinner was disagreed upon.

The actual mission had been complete and utter chaos. Without a set upon strategy and assigned roles to play in a team of four, no one knew where they should be, at what time, and what they ought to be doing. Someone, assuming her teammates had retrieved the scrolls and were already out of danger, set the fortress ablaze.

She was wrong.

It was an incredibly rash move; they had but entered less than three minutes ago. But this ninja, an incredibly naive Chuunin who really did not deserve her rank, had literally worshipped the ground her Jounin teammates walked upon, idolizing them for the slightest bit of fame. They were perfect, indestructible, with the resilience of granite. They could accomplish any mission in a hundredth of the time their average peers could.

She was wrong.

Weary and worn, these Jounin simply wanted a month long leave after three straight missions with not a half day's rest between them. The chipper Chuunin, who had not yet witnessed the horror and reality of her village's state of being, could not comprehend this. They were gods in her eyes, comparable to past Hokage and the Sannin.

She was wrong.

The flames the Chuunin created licked the walls with a burning fury, consuming everything around it. Stumbling blindly through it all, one of the idolized Jounin collapsed to her knees, and then onto all fours. Her eyes stung; all she could see was smoggy gray and angry red-orange.

There had been hope: they'd stolen a map of the building, and had entered with some direction. She'd reached that certain corridor and laid eyes upon the great looming oaken doors that served as an almost natural barrier against intruders. She was tired, but jubilant. The scrolls would be retrieved, and she could return to the bed she had not lain in for weeks.

Then the screams started.

The poor guards holding down the base were not ninja, merely highly skilled soldiers, but fire was still a mortal fear to them. They ran pell-mell down the halls, wildly seeking an escape from their mighty fort, now yielding to destruction. Thick smoke siphoned its way after, encasing them in a smoggy blanket to suffocate.

She couldn't feel her way to an entrance; the flames had fast eaten up too much of the pallid walls. The smoke was making her dizzy, and all rational thought had flown away the minute the forbidden panic had set in. Get out, get away, run away. Get out, get away, run away. Get out, get away, run away. Get out, get away, run away!

The world was crashing down around her ears, quite literally; she would be devoured and consumed by her own teammate's jutsu. There had been hope, but there was none now.

She wrapped her arms around her knees, lay her head down, and wept while her entire reality burned out into ash.

* * *

**Ending Note: **Please review. It would make me feel much better, and keep me hoping!


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